When The Bough Breaks
by Belle Walker
Summary: A building is bombed, and an agent is missing.  Written January 2004
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, Marcy," FBI Handler Joe Renato greeted his personal secretary as he entered his office.

"Hi, Joe," the attractive, dark-skinned secretary replied. "Here's your mail, and your phone messages."

"Thanks." Joe took the stack of mail and messages, whistling softly to himself as he sat down in the chair behind his desk.

He noticed the small television in the far corner of the room was tuned to a local news channel, with the volume turned down low.

Having accidentally overslept that morning, Joe had been forced to skip his usual routine of watching the early news while leisurely getting ready for work.

_Maybe I can watch some news after all, _he thought to himself with a twinge of satisfaction.

"Hey...turn that up, would you?" he requested.

"Sure." Marcy picked up a small remote control from the corner of her tidy desk and increased the television volume.

"...Ground Zero of the city's Lund building," a news reporter briefly relayed into a live-feed camera. "Sources say a bomb was detonated in this building roughly twenty minutes ago. There are no reports of survivors at this time."

At Joe's sharp intake of breath, Marcy glanced up from the papers on her desk. "Are you all right?"

Joe's eyes were glued to the television screen, an unfamiliar and overwhelming sense of panic seeping through his veins.

"Joe?" Marcy was concerned, to say the least. She had never seen her boss turn that pale before—not once in her eight years of working for him.

"Lily was in that building," Joe gasped.

Marcy's jaw dropped as she stared at him. "Are you sure?"

"I left her there less than an hour ago," he choked out. "She's working a money-laundering case."

"Oh, god," Marcy whispered, shifting her line of sight to the devastating rubble displayed on the television.

Pulling out his phone and quickly punching in seven digits, he willed Lily to answer the line and tell him she was okay.

But the only answer he got was a recorded voice stating, "The number you have dialed cannot be reached. Please disconnect and redial—"

Joe ended the connection and tried again, with identical results.

Ignoring the faint squeezing in his chest, he pocketed his cell phone, snatched up his keys and headed for the door. "Hold down the fort," he tossed over his shoulder.

"Wait—where are you going?" Marcy called after him.

"To find Lily."


	2. Chapter 2

_"...no reports of survivors..."_

The newsman's words echoed through Joe's head as he weaved his car through traffic.

"No...she's alive. She has to be," Joe stubbornly insisted to himself. "She's alive and perfectly fine...and when you find her, she'll laugh at you for thinking otherwise."

_Maybe she got out in time,_ the hope in the back of his mind spoke up.

"But why would she get out at all? She'd have no reason to even _suspect_ something like a bomb." Joe's throat constricted as unwanted images invaded his mind.

Horrifying images of sweet innocent Lily in the wrong place at the wrong time...and brutally subjected to the powerful destructive forces of manmade bombs.

Joe shook those terrible thoughts from his mind as he jerked his car to a stop near the partially demolished building.

One flash of his official badge, and he was admitted past the rescue workers with a simple warning about unstable debris.

His feet pounded through the dust and brick that the bomb had discarded upon detonation.

Out of breath, he finally arrived at his intended destination—the eastern wing of the brick building where he had left Lily for her undercover assignment.

Though one wall and part of the roof were damaged, the majority of the structure was still intact.

Joe grunted with exertion as he forced open a sagging wooden door that led inside.

He stepped into the hazy darkness, cursing himself for not having a flashlight with which to see his way through.

"Hey!" a familiar voice called from behind, then Darnell appeared in the splintered doorway with a flashlight in each hand. "Marcy called me," he explained before Joe could even voice a question. "I want to help find Lily."

With a silent nod, Joe gratefully accepted the younger man's flashlight and assistance.

Stepping cautiously, the two men dodged past various jutting remnants of what was once a clean, organized office.

They navigated their way through the seemingly endless debris, calling Lily's name and listening for any reply.

Both men had mixed emotions about the situation; they were anxious when met with no answer from the woman in question, yet they were also relieved when their search turned up no bodies.

"Do you think she got out in time?" Darnell questioned solemnly, darting a brave glance at his boss.

"I don't know," Joe answered with a sad shake of his head. "If she did, then how? And where did she go?"

But Darnell gave no response. His flashlight beam swept over a corner that had captured his attention. He hesitantly stepped closer, mindful of stumbling over anything in his path.

He came to a stop, his flashlight now aimed at the floor.

"Joe," Darnell called quietly.

Steeling himself against what he suspected Darnell had found, Joe came to stand beside his colleague.

His breath caught in his throat as the light from his battery-powered torch illuminated two bodies.

One was male, spattered from head to foot in a sickening stench of dirt mixed with blood.

The other body was obviously a young woman, clothed in a conservative skirt and blouse and flat-heeled shoes.


	3. Chapter 3

The woman's face was turned away from them and her hair was scattered across her face, preventing any immediate identification.

His legs feeling numb, Joe took two steps closer and knelt down beside her head. With gentle but trembling fingers, he brushed the blonde wisps away from the woman's youthful face.

"It's not her," he revealed, briefly closing his eyes in relief. "It's not her," he softly repeated to himself.

"Thank god," Darnell breathed out. "Then they must be two of the people Lily was working to expose."

"Angela Brooks," Joe stated, recalling the woman's face from the case file photos. "But where's the rest of their group?" he questioned. "There were these two," he gestured to the deceased man and woman on the floor. "Plus one more guy, and Lily."

"There aren't any more bodies here," Darnell answered hopefully. "So they must have gotten out alive. But where did she go?"

Joe sighed deeply. "I don't know." He took one more glance around the room, thinking. "We need to keep tabs on those two bodies," he finally said. "I don't want them 'misplaced'."

Darnell nodded in agreement. "You want me to take care of that?"

Joe gave him a mild smile. "I would _love_ for you to take care of that." He gave his agent a firm pat on the shoulder, adding, "Anybody gives you trouble, just flash your badge around."

The two exited the building and went separate ways—Darnell to make arrangements for the bodies, and Joe to scour the area for any signs of Lily's possible escape.

But Joe found no visible evidence, and dully informed Darnell that he was returning to FBI Headquarters to proceed further.

"I need you to follow those two bodies," he added before leaving. "Let me know the minute you get positive IDs. We need to know which guy is still out there."

"If we start an official search and attract media attention, we risk blowing her cover and ours," Joe told the remaining members of his team.

"So, what do we do?" Heather questioned a bit uncertainly.

Joe set a file folder on his desk and opened the cover. "Lily was working to expose these three people: Angela Brooks, Joshua Bankman, and Charlie 'The Tuna' Sandino." He passed Heather and Marcy a set of enlarged photographs of the criminals.

"I'm guessing this one's 'The Tuna'," Heather remarked of one photo. "He looks pretty fishy to me."

"Creepy," Marcy agreed, handing the photos back to Joe.

"We found two bodies at the site—one male, one female," Joe continued. "The female was Angela Brooks. Darnell's at the city morgue waiting on a positive ID for the male."

As if on cue, Joe's cell phone rang.

"What've you got?" Joe questioned immediately to the person on the other end, not wasting time on the usual greeting.

"Dental records ID our guy as Charles Sandino," Darnell informed him.

"Which means Joshua Bankman is still out there somewhere...most likely with Lily," Joe finished. "Thanks. Listen, come back to HQ and I'll fill you in on the plan."

"Gotcha."

"This is what our guy looks like." Joe distributed enlarged copies of Joshua Bankman's photo to his three agents, along with copies of Lily's picture. "Go back to the area of the explosion and the surrounding houses and buildings. I want you to ask anybody and everybody if they've seen him or Lily. If anyone looks or acts suspicious, follow them."

"You staying here?" Darnell questioned.

Joe looked down at his shaking hands, reluctantly admitting, "I don't think I'm in any condition to be chasing people down." _I don't even trust my legs to hold me upright if I stood up_, he added silently.

With expressions of sympathy, his agents dispersed, leaving Joe in his solitude.

He stared blankly at the surface of his desk for a long moment, then reached over to a drawer and pulled out a black, department-issued ID wallet.

Lily's department photo—with a smirk on her face more than an actual smile—pulled Joe into a flashback of that very morning when he had last seen her.

_"You know the drill," Joe held a battered brown shoebox toward Lily as soon as she got into his car._

_"Yeah, yeah," Lily responded with a smile as she tossed her ID wallet into the box, keeping only the false one issued for her assignment. "You want my lipstick, too?" she added impishly, applying a small amount of pinkish hue to her lips._

_"Nah, it's not really my color," Joe grinned back. He drove an eager Lily to her destination, and was surprised when she impulsively leaned over and kissed his cheek before exiting the car._

_As she shut the door, she gave him a smirk through the open window and remarked, "You're right—it _**_isn't_**_ your color." _

_"Brat," he accused lightly with playfully narrowed eyes. "Get outta here."_

_Lily's answer was a mere snicker as she tossed a tissue at him so he could clean the lip print off his cheek._

_Then she turned away and sashayed out of his sight, disappearing through the building's wooden door._

A small drop of clear liquid splashed onto the plastic covering of the picture. Joe hadn't even realized he was teary-eyed until his vision blurred and he choked on a breath.

He laid the ID wallet back in the bottom of its drawer and slowly slid the drawer shut.

Blinking back angry tears, he folded his arms across the desk and helplessly rested his head on them.


	4. Chapter 4

"Yeah, it's been over a week now, and we've got squat," Heather said into her cell phone as she tapped her other hand impatiently on the car's steering wheel. "My boss is taking it even harder than the rest of us. Just between you and me, I think he cares for her more than he wants to admit."

She paused while the person on the other end spoke a few sentences.

"I know…poor guy. I feel really bad for both of them. I don't know what he's gonna do if we don't find her," Heather answered. "Oh, I gotta hang up now, Dad. Traffic just opened up again and I need both hands to steer my car through it."

She ended the phone conversation with a warm goodbye to her father, and cautiously navigated her vehicle past a three-car pile-up that was blocking the traffic. She made it inside her workplace just twenty minutes after her shift was supposed to start.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. I got stuck in a traffic jam," she apologized as she pushed open the door to Joe's office, stopping short as she took in the sight before her.

Joe sat hunched over his desk with the heels of his hands pressed against his eyes.

Marcy stood solemnly nearby, dabbing at her own eyes with a crumpled tissue.

Darnell leaned forward in a chair, his elbows on his knees and a single tear sliding down his cheek.

"What's going on, guys?" Heather asked in worried suspicion.

Marcy sniffled. "The Department is calling off the search."

Heather's eyes widened. "Calling it off? Is Lily—" she broke off abruptly, almost afraid to say the word 'dead'. "Have they found anything?"

"No," Joe mumbled from behind his hands. He took a ragged breath and explained bitterly, "They just don't want to 'waste' any more resources by looking for her."

"They're writing up their report right now," Darnell informed her. "Officially, she's Missing-in-Action. Unofficially...dead."

"But they're still digging people out of the bombing site," Heather protested, grasping at invisible straws. "They could still find her!"

Darnell shook his head sadly. "It's been more than a week. Even if they do pull her out, there's no way she could have survived that long under there. Especially if she was injured."

Heather sighed heavily, sinking into a chair next to Darnell. "So there's nothing we can do."

Her statement was met with silence. The only other sound in the room was Marcy's quiet sniffling.

After just a few moments, Joe couldn't take the silence any longer. He jumped to his feet, grabbing his jacket and keys. "If a job comes in today, Darnell's in charge."

"Me?" Darnell echoed in mild surprise. "Why? Where are you going?"

"Home." Joe paused in the doorway. "You can handle it," he assured. "You've done it before. You'll be fine."

Joe didn't go directly home; he found himself wandering aimlessly through a grassy park, lost in his thoughts.

The fact that he couldn't recall driving there unnerved him a bit, and he wondered why his subconscious had brought him to that park at all.

Joe passed by a large oak tree, doing a double-take when a brief memory fluttered through his head.

He came back to stand in front of the tree's trunk, his fingers rising to the bullet hole that marred the bark covering.

There was a shoot-out in that park recently—Joe knew because he and two of his agents had been unwillingly involved in it.

He recalled seeing one of the accused criminals aim a gun in Lily's direction before pulling the trigger. If Lily hadn't ducked behind that tree just in time, the bullet would have been removed from her chest rather than from the tree.

Joe's hand dropped slowly from the bullet hole, and he turned away, not wanting to relive any more of that scary memory.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he trudged back toward the parking lot where he had left his car.

The drive home was almost as forgotten as the drive to the park, and Joe marveled once more at the strangeness of arriving at his apartment building but having no memory of the journey to it.

He entered his apartment and flung his keys and jacket in the general direction of the coffee table. He missed by a foot, and left the items where they had landed on the floor by the couch.

He used the bathroom, then wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Food held no appeal to him, so he pushed aside a few containers, hoping to find a bottle of beer hiding in the back.

Finding nothing, he moved on to the small pantry and flipped the light switch.

Reaching up to the top shelf, Joe pulled down a dusty bottle half-filled with amber-colored liquid.

"Hello, old friend," he muttered wryly, unscrewing the top.


	5. Chapter 5

"You know he's gonna kick us out," Heather predicted as she followed Darnell up the steps of the apartment building.

"Yeah, but someone still needs to check on him," Darnell answered. "Make sure he hasn't killed himself, at least."

Heather stared at him in disbelief. "You're joking, right?"

Darnell shrugged noncommittally. "I'm not saying he would, but I'm not saying he wouldn't, either."

They reached Joe's apartment door, and Darnell knocked loudly. "Joe? Hey, man—are you in there?"

"Get lost!"

Heather snorted humorlessly. "Well, at least we know he's still alive."

Darnell knocked again—even louder this time. "Open the door!"

"I'm not in the mood for company!" Joe shouted angrily. "Leave me alone!"

Darnell sighed, his shoulders slumping. If their shouting continued any longer, one of Joe's neighbors may try to turn them in for disturbing the peace. "All right—you win. We're leaving," he said through the door. "Just...don't do anything stupid, huh?"

_"Go!"_

Darnell clenched his jaw and turned away. "Come on," he said to Heather. "Let's go."

Heather flipped open her cell phone. "I'm calling Marcy."

(time break)

Marcy pulled up beside Darnell's car and cut the engine. "Is he drunk yet?" she asked immediately.

From his place on the hood, Darnell grunted, "If he isn't, he will be soon."

"Maybe you can talk some sense into him," Heather said with a frustrated sigh. "He won't listen to us."

"He won't even let us inside," Darnell added unhappily.

Marcy squinted her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the threat of an oncoming headache. "I'll see what I can do."

She left her colleagues in the parking lot and started up the flight of steps, stopping at one particular door.

"Joe?" Marcy called through the closed door.

"Go away!" Joe hollered back.

Marcy mustered up all the courage and lung-power she could, shouting, "Joe, if you don't open this door, I'm kicking it down!"

She heard a string of curses, then shuffling feet, and finally the door was jerked open.

"If you're here to tell me to get over it and move on," Joe warned with a stern glare. "You can do us both a favor and leave right now."

But Marcy, somewhat accustomed to Joe's occasionally erratic behavior, followed him inside and shut the door. "I'm here as your friend, Joe," she responded calmly. "You need to talk to somebody, and I'm not leaving until you do."

All the fight suddenly gone from his will, Joe sank down into the couch. His hand closed around a glass of amber liquid and brought it to his lips.

"You've lost agents before," Marcy addressed him with a soft tone. "Why is Lily different from the others?"

Joe swallowed his mouthful of alcohol, letting it burn slowly down his throat. "She's special," he answered quietly, staring unseeing at his now empty glass.

"Special, how?"

"I dunno...there's just something about her," he continued to speak about Lily in the present tense, refusing to acknowledge the devastating fact that she may never come back. "She gets to me, you know? She gets to me like nobody else ever did."

Marcy smiled gently. "All your agents get to you, Joe. You're a good guy; you care about them. It's kinda hard not to."

The alcohol had loosened Joe's tongue a bit, causing him to blurt unexpectedly, "But I've never been in love with my other agents."

Marcy was stunned into silence at his admission. _Joe is in love with Lily? And all this time, I thought it was just harmless flirting._

Despite his slight intoxication, Joe was alert enough to realize what he'd just said. "That wasn't supposed to come out," he mumbled with an embarrassed chuckle.

Marcy gave him a sympathetic look. _The poor guy._

"What business do I have being in love with her, anyway?" Joe rambled to himself. "She's so young and innocent...and I'm practically an old man. She probably doesn't even think of me the way I think of her. Not like I could really blame her." He punctuated his statement by filling his glass again and tossing it back like it was nothing.

"So...what—you're just going to drink yourself into oblivion?"

"Sure...why not," Joe replied carelessly, stretching out on the couch and flinging an arm across his closed eyes. "Oblivion is numbness, and numb is good..."

Marcy was angry now, though she struggled to keep it in check. "You know, if Lily _was_ here, she wouldn't be proud to see you like this. She'd be ashamed of the way you're acting—I know _I_ am."

"Well she's _not_ here, is she?" Joe snapped. He swallowed the lump in his throat, then said in a milder tone, "You know where the door is. Don't let it hit you on the way out."

Marcy rose to her feet with a sad shake of her head, leaving Joe halfway passed out on his couch.

(time break)

Joe slowly opened his eyes as the morning sunshine streamed through the windows and landed directly on his face.

He groaned painfully and rolled over until the sunlight hit his shoulders and ceased blinding him.

With a pounding head and heavy heart, Joe recalled his shameful behavior toward his agents—his _friends_—who had tried to help him last night.

They had each made an honest endeavor to reach out to him, and he had hatefully rejected them and their efforts.

He only hoped now that they would be willing to forgive him.

His jacket still lay where he had chucked it the night before—on the floor at the end of the couch where his head now rested. The cell phone in the pocket began ringing shrilly—a loud punishment to the alcohol-induced sensitivity of Joe's ears.

He briefly considered just letting it ring and simply ignoring the noise, figuring it was just Marcy or Darnell calling to check up on him again.

But the phone refused to be silenced, and it rang until Joe finally answered it with a groggy "Hello?"

"Joe?" a voice was weakly heard on the other end of the line. "It's me."

Though his brain was fuzzy from a slight hangover, Joe was awake and alert just enough to attach a name to that voice.

"Lily!" he gasped.


	6. Chapter 6

Joe burst through the main doors of the hospital with Darnell, Heather and Marcy hot on his heels.

"Where is she?" he demanded of the people at the nurses' station.

"Sir, if you'll please calm down and tell me who—"

Joe flashed his ID badge. "I'm looking for Lily Bernham—she's in this hospital. What room?"

A large nurse tapped a few commands into her computer, then relayed: "Room one-twenty-two, down that hallway."

Not even bothering to thank the nurse, Joe took off again, his agents trailing after him once more.

He skidded to a stop in the doorway of Room 122, his breath catching in his throat as he stared at the young woman in the hospital bed.

"Hey, guys!" Lily greeted as cheerfully as she could considering the pain she was in. Her left arm was in a plaster cast, and a large bandage adorned the hairline of her forehead. An intravenous line was attached to her right arm, the elevated drip bag containing liquid nutrients for her dehydrated body.

With wide smiles, Marcy, Heather and Darnell each gave her a careful hug, expressing their joy at her presence.

Joe hung back for a moment, taking in the sleepy but genuine smile on Lily's pretty face as she welcomed her friends and colleagues.

Conversation waned after barely a few minutes, though, and neither of them really had anything more to say to each other.

Marcy took this opportunity to give Joe a smile and a subtle nudge in Lily's direction. Then she pulled Heather and Darnell back into the hallway to give Lily and Joe a little privacy.

Lily's eyes followed Joe as he sat gingerly on the edge of her bed, brushing his fingertips lightly against hers. The physical contact helped to assure him that Lily was really there—that she wasn't a mirage taunting his emotions. "How are you feeling?" he asked softly.

"Great," Lily lied with a smile. She tried to scoot into a better sitting position, and her sore ribs protested the movement. "Ow. Okay...maybe not great," she admitted sheepishly. "But I'll be fine."

Joe's mind was swimming with questions, but he only posed one for now. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Well honestly," Lily answered hesitantly. "I'm not quite sure. I don't think I was even conscious most of the time."

Joe looked at her in confusion and concern. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I banged my head on something when that building collapsed on us," she began, fingering the edge of the bandage on her forehead. "I guess I must have been knocked out completely at one point because I don't remember much after that..." Her sentence trailed off as she became lost in thought, trying to put together the fleeting events in her mind.

Joe's hand gently cupping her cheek brought her back to reality. "What _do_ you remember?" he asked softly.

Lily scrunched her nose slightly. "It's weird, you know? Almost like a dream. I remember muffled sounds, and vague images of some apartment we must have been in...but none of it really makes much sense when I try to think about it." She shrugged a shoulder, adding, "Josh told me I'd been a little 'out of it' for a few days, so I guess that kind of explains it."

"Josh?"

"Joshua Bankman," Lily elaborated. "One of those guys I've been working with?"

Joe nodded in acknowledgement. "The money-laundering job."

"Yeah. He's the one who got me out of the building. I don't remember much, but I do remember he kept saying over and over, 'I'm not gonna let you die'." Lily gazed up at Joe with bright eyes. "He could have just left me there, but he didn't."

Joe leaned down and gave Lily an impulsive but tender kiss near the corner of her mouth. "I'm very grateful he didn't leave you there," he stated in all seriousness. "But he should have taken you straight to the hospital instead of hiding you away somewhere without decent medical attention. He took a big chance with your life."

"Yeah, I know," Lily answered helplessly, entwining her fingers with his on the hospital blanket. "He finally brought me here last night when I was awake, and stayed until the nurses kicked him out. He said he wanted to make sure I was going to be okay before he left."

"You were here all night?" Joe echoed in confusion. "Why didn't you call me sooner?"

"I wanted to, but those darn nurses wouldn't allow it!" Lily answered hotly. "They wouldn't let me call _anyone_ until after Josh left this morning. They said they didn't want a bunch of people showing up outside visiting hours and 'getting in their way'."

"Did Josh tell you where he was going? Did he leave any clues?"

"No...I'm sorry. He wouldn't tell me. "

"Yeah," Joe sighed quietly, caressing Lily's knuckles. "It's not your fault. You did good."

"Hey, what caused that building to collapse, anyway?" Lily wanted to know. "Weak foundation? Earthquake? "

Joe shook his head. "Someone set off a bomb."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "A bomb? Why?"

"We don't know yet. It's still being investigated."

"Wow." Lily's eyelids drooped a bit and she awkwardly stifled a yawn with the hand of her bandaged arm. "Sorry," she said with a sleepy smile.

Joe smiled back, reaching his free hand out to caress her cheek. "I should go. You need to rest."

Lily merely nodded her agreement, smothering another yawn beneath her hand.

"We're still going to have to talk about Josh some more, you know," Joe reminded her as he rose to his feet. "He played the role of the Good Samaritan this time, but he _is_ still wanted for money fraud."

"Yeah," Lily conceded in a soft tone. "I know he's a con man and a thief...but he also saved my life. This probably makes me sound like a bad person, but right now, I'm not really sure I _want_ him to get found."

"Honestly...me either." Joe pressed a gentle kiss to her palm, adding: "He brought you back to us. That's the most important thing."


End file.
